Leaders in the private sector and business managers have been called upon to influence international trade negotiations and seize opportunities presented by the global trading system.

The call was made by the Private Sector Federation (PSF) boss, Emmanuel Hategeka, during a 3-day regional training on Trade Policy for Business Managers held in Kigali on Wednesday.

Organised by PSF in collaboration with the International Trade Centre (ICT), the meeting attracted several business leaders from the East African Community.

During the session, Hategeka explained that the principle of the programme was to train private sector stakeholders like trade specialists, advocates for fair trade and legal professionals, on the intricacies and technicalities of trade policy processes and agreements especially from a private sector perspective.

"Our trainers who are experts in regional and international trade, have covered topics in business and regional integration, integrating business priorities in trade policy and regulatory reform for export,” said Hategeka.

He called upon EAC member states to work collectively to make the Common Market practice a success especially by scaling down the number of sensitive goods and services that they desire to be exempted from taxation.

"Otherwise, the common market would lose its significance if each country decides to protect as many exports from taxation.”

"Many a time, countries enforce non tariff and technical barriers so as to compensate for the losses they accumulate in a common market. This practice is a bottleneck that slows the movement of goods across borders reliably and effectively, consequently, undermining the true meaning of regional integration,” he added.

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